A/N - Another shorter chapter, but a lot of stuff going down. Hope ya'll like it!

Review Replies:

Lemon93: Aw, that's awesome! Glad you like it so much. And I haven't played Killzone believe it or not. Most of the 'feel' for this was inspired by Blackhawk Down!

MYK-ON: Yes.

Cover image by u/BendyWend.

Disclaimer: Naruto stuff = not mine, literally everything else = mine.

Chapter 6: Rumination in Station 135

After we had established a secure connection with Shizune-chan, she gave us an update about the invasion.

By then, we were back in Station 135, resting and celebrating a successful mission.

"Most of the squads landed safely, but we lost quite a few to flak. More reports are coming in, thanks to you guys taking down that jammer. Only had a few squads clear of it." I smiled at this, high-fiving Sakura, careful not to agitate her shoulder, which had been grazed in the attack. Some anti-septic and med-foam sealed had sealed it up in seconds.

"After a bombing run by some flyers we landed yesterday, we'll drop you guys a care package."

"It's desperately needed." I said, checking over our combined ammo stores.

"Besides you, we're landing about a division per day, more when the weather permits. Also, we've started pushing into the city. We'll have you guys out of there in no time."

We cheered. The novelty of Erebus and a real-live combat zone had worn off. Born for war or not, we were getting sick of this hellhole.

"Maybe next time, Obaa-chan" (my nickname for Field Marshal Tsunade) "can send us somewhere with beaches, neh?" Spritely laughter filled our headsets.

"Maybe, Naruto-kun, maybe. I hear rebels are landing on Blue-Water-Pure-Shoals!" That earned a collective low whistle throughout the squad. That planet was a legendary paradise, dotted entirely with volcanic islands, pristine coasts, and hot springs galore.

"We must liberate a condo immediately." Shikamaru added, the prospect of lazing around on a beach staring at clouds impossible to ignore.

"Dumb name for a world, but damn, what a fantastic idea." Tenten sighed wistfully.

"Anyway," Shizune continued, still chuckling, "Here's where the drop will be." A green blip appeared on my data slate. "Of course, you don't have any beacons, so this is approximate."

"Copy that." I said. Beacons were used for orbital targeting. much like Tenten's tagging system, beacons allowed orbiting ships to fire accurately into the planet below, allowing targeted orbital strikes (avoiding wholesale bombardment) or tactical deployments (like our care package).

"Alright, I'll ping you when it's outbound. Good hunting!" We said our goodbyes, clicking off comms.

We were quiet for a bit, wearing huge dorky grins as our thoughts lingered on Blue-Water-Pure-Shoals.

"Who's going to go get it?" Sakura asked, breaking the comfortable silence.

"Oh, you've done it now." I said into my palm. Squabbling broke out at once, some fighting for the honor of retrieving it (Lee, Neji, Sakura, Tenten) some to avoid the pain (Shikamaru, Chouji, Kiba), and others (Hinata, Ino, Sasuke, Shino and myself) staying out of it completely. I let them bicker for a bit. It was fun listening to them insult, deride, form factions and debate over something we all knew was going to happen one way or another.

A message popped up on my data slate. Non-priority folder. It could wait, I had to deal with this first.

"All right, all right, ALL RIGHT!" I shouted, still smiling. "Three rules! Rule one: no wounded." Groans from Sakura and Tenten. And Shikamaru, realizing his chances of being selected were greater now.

"Pretty convenient for you, huh dobe?" Sasuke said, smiling for once in his life.

"He's got you there, nii-chan." Sakura said, nudging me with an elbow. Sasuke noticed, and his smile widened.

"It's a legitimate concern, and you know it!" I huffed, crossing my arms. Hinata giggled, covering her mouth with a hand again. God, that's cute. Where was I?

"Oh right." I coughed. "Second rule: the recovery squad must have at least one sensory gen-mod!" Kiba groaned. He had an enhanced sense of smell, which allowed him uncanny detection abilities, but also earned him the nickname 'Inu-kun' for a time long past maturity.

The rest of the squad nodded with mock gravity, seeing the wisdom in my decree.

"Rule three! The computer decides!" A few more grumblings, but Neji looked appeased. Him and fate. Sheesh.

"Any questions?" I asked.

"Hn."

"Uh-uh."

"Nuh-uh, Naruto!"

"No go, gunso!"

"Yosh!"

"It's in fate's hands."

"This whole thing's such a drag."

"Very well!" I prodded my data slate, opening a randomization app. Entering all eligible candidates, I hit the button. With a grandiose bow, I read off the names, pointing at each selected candidate with dramatic gusto.

"Kiba! Ino! Chouji! Hinata! Lee!"

Lee jumped up into a hundred pushups, thrilled to test himself further. Ino and Kiba groaned, while Hinata giggled some more. Shikamaru lit up a cigarette, smiling contentedly to himself. Smug bastard. I could always make him go, but I couldn't break my own rules. What kind of leader would I be?

However…I didn't really want to risk Lee either. We'd succeeded at destroying the jammer thanks to him, and when we returned, everyone praised his name to the heavens. He'd accepted it all graciously, babbling something about the power of youth.

We settled down for a bit after the excitement. It warmed my heart a little that we could still harangue each other like that after risking our lives just hours before.

I shuddered a bit. We had butchered so many soldiers. However, it seemed that they were all pushing that fact to the back of their minds. Good. We learned long ago to deal with that shit on our time.

I sighed, and my mind flickered to the first time we took lives.

We were sixteen. Ever since we had entered our eighth year of schooling, we were active members of Konoha's Urban Police Assault Unit, or UPAU. It was a division of local law-enforcement, analogous to the SWAT teams that exist on many other planets.

We were just kids when we got the uniforms. Cool-looking gas masks, black fatigues and flak jackets. We had decided to be soldiers long ago, but the reality hadn't set in yet.

But that's why we were on UPAU. To give us real combat experience before we got thrown into the real deal. We were fourteen then, but it was two years before the first call came. During first period, no less.

I was sitting bleary-eyed in Leadership Class with Gaara, Bee, Utakata, and Fu (s/he was an interesting person, I'll say that much). We had all been promoted to gunso two years back, and I had become good friends with Gaara and Bee. But their data slates didn't beep when mine did. They were all in different squads, from different planets, so I didn't think much of it. Until I saw the notification.

Kosenjobi. Assemble immediately. UPAU Directive 1-1B Initiated.

The screen flashed the message three times before it registered. My sensei, Iruka-heichou, nodded.

Sprinting down the hallway, I gathered my squad, all of whom were stumbling out of their classes, their earlier drowsiness robbed from them.

Within five minutes, we were gearing up in the back of an armored van, and Kakashi-sensei was briefing us. He would accompany us to make sure we could handle everything, even after assuring us we didn't need it.

A fourteen-man terrorist cell sympathetic to the rebels had taken two dozen hostages inside a Konoha office building, threatening to kill them all unless the great traitor Orochimaru (the bastard behind the Bombardment of Babel) went free. We all knew that was never going to happen, so here we were.

Within ten minutes, we were in a VTOL, attack plan ready, floor plan memorized, and geared up, ready to go. Sitting on the edge of the bench, I surveyed my squad. They were all nerve-wracked and anxious, double and triple checking their equipment. In their black uniforms, only their height differentiated them. In that respect, Sakura was the most noticeable. Even back then she still towered over us.

Kiba lifted his mask and vomited, having to smell our rank nervousness in addition to dealing with his own.

Within twenty minutes, we were rappelling down the side of the building. It was something we'd practiced many times, we were all confident on the ropes. But it wasn't the fact that we were eight stories up and held in place by some equipment that had us shaking. No, it was the terrorists below us that had us shaking, half with anticipation, half with anxiety.

"I'd probably be taking my first nap of the day." I said over comms. I got a few laughs. My studying habits were well known, and I used them to lighten my squad up. If they froze in there, they were dead.

"Alright Kosenjobi, get pumped, we can do this! Engage in five!" They tensed, crouching against the building's sheer walls. "Four! Three!" I tensed, waiting to spring. Sakura, who was next to me, nodded.

"Two! One! Gogogo!" We sprung out from the walls, flying into the air. Our harnesses caught, throwing us into the windows below. We each put two rounds into the glass, breaking the rest with the weight of our fall.

Time slowed, and reflexes took over.

Two terrorists were spinning around to face the windows. Too slow. I double tapped one, putting two rounds in his heart and spraying the hostages with blood. His face twisted into a rictus of agony, blood spewing from his mouth and chest. Sakura took the other one, one round tearing his throat open, the other splitting his head apart.

I hit the floor, rolling into a ready position, sub-machine gun scanning for more targets. Everything moved so slow, and I felt adrenaline surging through me like a tsunami. Ino crashed in, directly behind a terrorist. He didn't even get to turn around before she put a short burst of bullets through his spine at point blank.

Sasuke lit up a masked man as he turned to gun down some hostages. Too slow. They were all too slow.

One more picked up a civilian, a handgun to his head.

"Anyone moves-" Hinata put a round through his forehead, and he flopped to the floor. His hostage, covered in blood, screamed, clutching her ears as tightly as she could.

Chouji stormed forward with his ballistic shield out in front, blocking most of the civilians from enemy bullets.

"Four more outside!" Neji shouted, raising his shotgun at the same time. It roared, shredding the wooden paneling and the terrorists behind it.

"Get them out of here!" I yelled, pointing at the hostages. Ino and Kiba obeyed, herding them onto the VTOL that hovered outside the broken windows. The wind from the vehicle put the room in total disarray, sending papers scattering and buffeting us with howling gales.

They were reluctant, but piled in anyway, screaming and panicked by the chaos that surrounded them. Ino and Kiba did their best, throwing the ones that were too terrified to move willingly.

Bullets kicked into Chouji's shield, embedding themselves in the hardened plastic. He returned fire, blasting at the muzzle flashes that erupted from the hall. Giving a cry, one of the terrorists was torn from cover, getting ripped to pieces by the squad's combined fire. Suddenly, the hail of bullets stopped.

"Hold fire!" My squad sent another few rounds screaming into the hallway. "Hold fire, God damn it!" I screamed. That got their attention.

"Sweep the floor! There's still four of them left!" Hustling forward, the Konoha 12 obeyed. Kakashi caught my eye, nodding slowly. I hurried forward next to my Fireteam, who were waiting by an office door.

"Prepare to breach on my mark!" They tensed again. "Mark!" Sakura smashed the door open with the butt of her rifle, and Sasuke turned into the room, hosing the interior with bullets.

"Two down." He said, turning back outside and reloading.

"Neji here. We got the other one." His voice spiked suddenly. "Naruto look out!"

I spun around in time to see a terrorist sprinting towards me, knife braced to pierce my heart. I dropped, sweeping his legs out from under him. A hand reached for my pistol, tearing it from my holster. I stomped on his elbow, his arm breaking with an audible snap.

I ripped my knife out. Too slow! They were all so slow!

It dug into his ribcage, turning and twisting into his body. He screamed, battering me with his broken arm. The knife went down again. And again. It didn't stop until the screaming did, and my arm felt as heavy as lead.

Sakura took the knife from my bloody hand, and crushing me in a tight embrace.

"It's okay, it's okay. Nii-chan. We did it. It's over." And like that, I let a breath go that I seemed to have held since I got the message.

The corpse sat below me, face twisted in agony. Oh. Oh god. I pushed my own despair to the side for the moment. My squad looked okay, relieved and shaking from adrenaline. They were sitting around, clearing their SMGs and panting.

"Everyone." I said, quietly at first. It didn't matter, they all raised their heads to listen to their gunso.

"I'm proud of you guys. We did well. You all know that." They beamed, despite the carnage that surrounded them.

I think they slept soundly that night, but I sure didn't. I kept seeing the faces of the men I killed. Smelling their fear and helplessness. The faces start blurring together after a while, but those first two are still clear in my mind. Always will be.

A/N: Boy Naruto just can't get a break.

Thanks so much for the support so far, you guys! It's amazing! :D Next story chapter's gonna blow your socks off, promise. ;)